The Bomb Factory Art Foundation to open Shut Up and Stick to Football, a group exhibition examining the interplay between politics and football opening just in time for Euro 2024.
The show features a diverse range of artists, from renowned Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger to subversive street artist Foka Wolf.
In June 2021, the England men’s team were booed by fans for taking the knee before a match – a gesture intended to show solidarity against racism following the murder of George Floyd. The consensus among many right-wing politicians and commentators was that they should ‘shut up and stick to football’, declaring that sport and politics don’t mix.
From the FA’s ban on women’s football in the 1920s to World Cups hosted by oppressive governments,
the Hillsborough tragedy, modern-day corruption of football institutions and sports-washing by nation-states; football and politics have always been inextricably linked throughout history. Coinciding with the 2024 European Championships in Germany, our ‘team’ of 11 contemporary artists will explore the intricate bond between the beautiful game and politics, examining how this relationship highlights cultural tribalism and societal polarisation in the modern era
Featured artists Darren Cullen, Emmely Elgersma, Ed Gray, Jamie Holman, Dion Kitson, Dominic from Luton, Conor Rogers, Janette Parris, Mark Wallinger, Foka Wolf and Wankers of the World.
Shut Up and Stick to Football, 14th June – 14th July, The Bomb Factory Art Factory, Long Acre
Private View | 13th June 6-9pm
About the artists
Darren Cullen is a satirical artist, activist and writer based in London. He is best known for his Action Man: Battlefield Casualties action figures/film, Mini Daily Mail, and Pocket Money Loans, a payday loan shop for kids that was featured at Banksy’s Dismaland. In 2021 he launched the Hell Bus a “pre-apocalyptic marketing suite” satirising the oil industry’s attempts to deny and delay action on global warming.
Emmely Elgersma is an artist who uses her studio like a surreal kitchen, concocting wonky sculptures and wobbly objects. Using clay from kitchen products and papier-mâché out of household chemicals, Elgersma’s work is rooted in her formal training as a ceramicist. The result is an exploration of what objects mean to us as human beings, be it turning an old tennis ball tube into a luxury functioning lamp or turning piles of disused packaging into a 14ft shark for a brewery in Scotland.
Ed Gray is an artist who captures every day London life in his sketchbook as he wanders the city. For 25 years he has made narrative scenes that explore the relationship and rhythms between people and urban spaces- a celebration of the individual within the collective- alongside his own changing relationship to the city he has grown up in. The resulting paintings are full of London mythology borrowed from images, songs, films and books. His football paintings come from his interest in ritual, ceremony identity and tribalism
Jamie Holman is a multi-disciplinary artist creating works often fabricated using industrial processes or with heritage crafts makers and artisans. Holman produces work as one half of “uncultured creatives “ a collaboration with producer and curator
Alex Zawadzki, delivering works in public, digital, print and traditional gallery spaces, producing works that are informed by the heritage of working class communities, site specific heritage and by historic narratives that lack visibility.
Dion Kitson is an artist recognized for his diverse works spanning multiple mediums. Born and raised in Dudley, Kitson draws much of his inspiration from his hometown and lived experiences, often incorporating found objects, such as old footballs from the canal or a car tire from a towpath, into his works. His art is largely driven by intuition, and he describes his working process as something of a mystery, akin to an algorithm for creating artworks.
Dominic From Luton works between Luton and London. He graduated from Chelsea College of Art in 1999 and is currently a PhD student at the Centre for Post Digital Culture, Coventry University. Recent public realm commissions have been in Norwich, Salford, Manchester and Middlesbrough. He’s currently working on a major public artwork for Newlands Park, Luton. His monograph is available through Cornerhouse, Manchester.
Conor Rogers uses painterly and sculptural language to translate depictions from everyday life as a means of navigating time and place. Familiar subject matter is repositioned with a critical approach towards painting as object that allows common landscapes to extend beyond the illusion of what is seen and become both object and image at the same time. In combining image and object Rogers endeavours to expose the intense reality of life in Britain.
Janette Parris is an artist who investigates the contemporary urban experience, using narrative, humour and popular formats including soap opera, stand-up comedy, musical theatre, pop mu-sic, cartoons, comics and animation. Parris has exhibited nationally and internationally for 25 years at spaces including Tate Britain and Tate Modern.
Mark Wallinger has created some of the most subtly intelligent and influential artworks of the last thirty years. Wallinger is known for his career-long engagement with ideas of power, authority, artifice and illusion. Using epic narratives, lyrical metaphors and ardent punning, the artist interleaves the mythological, the political and the everyday. In 2007 he was awarded the Turner Prize.
Foka Wolf has created their public art installations for over a decade, mixing serious social & political commentary with humour and surrealism. Their street art has garnered national attention & featured in The Guardian, BBC, Metro & Evening Standard.
Wankers of the World is a London-based satirical artist creating provocative and often hilarious work. He gained notoriety in 2017 with a range of prostitute advertisement cards portraying right-wing politicians, followed in 2018 by a saucy video installation in a Soho shop window depicting Boris Johnson and Donald Trump dancing provocatively. He has also undertaken various interventions including adding subversive Prince Andrew souvenir mugs into the Buckingham Palace shop and leaving abusive Philip Green T-shirts in Topshop
